Nicole Tuchinda
Assistant Professor and Academic Director, Health Law Program
Education
LL.M. in Advocacy with Distinction, Georgetown University Law Center
LL.M. in Clinical Education, Social Justice, and Systems Change, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law
J.D. with Honors, George Washington University Law School
M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
B.A. Cum Laude in Psychology, Yale University
Departments
- College of Law
- Law
Bio
Professor Tuchinda (pronounced Too-Chin-Dah) (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor and Academic Director of the Health Law Program at the College of Law. She teaches Disability and the Law, Health Law Survey, and Children and the Law. Professor Tuchinda’s scholarship focuses on preventing and healing childhood trauma; social determinants of health; education; and health justice, including racial justice.
In 2021-2022, she taught Torts I and II, Health Law Seminar, and Health Law Survey as a Visiting Assistant Professor at The University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. In 2019-2020, Professor Tuchinda was the Director of the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic (JSPED) and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC). At UDC, she taught Contracts and supervised law students in special education and school discipline cases and systems change projects aimed at ending the school to system pipeline, addressing childhood trauma, and improving racial justice. In 2017-2019, she was a founding Clinical Teaching Fellow at the Health Justice Alliance, a medical-legal partnership, at Georgetown University Law Center (GULC). At GULC, she supervised law students in family law, special education, consumer and utility law, and public benefits law cases.
Professor Tuchinda was a Clinical Instructor and Supervising Attorney at JSPED for two years, and she was also a solo practitioner for two years in education and family law cases in the District of Columbia. She was also an associate at Ropes & Gray, LLP for four years; clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly; and litigated as an Assistant Chief Counsel at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Publications
Nicole Tuchinda, Disproportionate School Brutality Upon Black Children, 112 Kentucky L. J. 113 (2023-2024), (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4581314#:~:text=They%20were%20also%20the%20main,a%20quality%20education%20to%20them)
Nicole Tuchinda, The Imperative for Trauma-Responsive Special Education, 95 N.Y.U. L. Rev. (June 2020) (https://www.nyulawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/NYULawReview-Volume-95-Issue-3-Tuchinda.pdf).
Nicole Tuchinda, Ending School Brutality, 28 William & Mary J. of Race, Gender, & Soc. Just. 617 (May 2022) (https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/vol28/iss3/#:~:text=Linh%20K.%20Dai-,PDF,-Ending%20School%20Brutality).
Lisa Kessler, Yael Cannon, Nicole Tuchinda, Ana Caskin, Christina Balz Ndjatou, Vicki W. Girard & Deborah Perry, Co-Creating a Legal Check-up in a School-Based Health Center Serving Low-Income Adolescents, 15 Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action 203 (Summer 2021), https://muse.jhu.edu/article/797367/pdf.
Yael Cannon and Nicole Tuchinda, K-12 Education as Health Justice, 50 J. of L., Medicine, & Ethics 776 (2022), https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-law-medicine-and-ethics/article/critical-perspectives-to-advance-educational-equity-and-health-justice/14B7FB62B90EA7D46B25767D65ABF23E.
Nicole Tuchinda, Disproportionate School Brutality Upon Black Children, Kentucky L. J. (forthcoming).
Yael Cannon & Nicole Tuchinda, Schools and Educational Programs, in AIDS and the Law §§ 5.01-5.04 (Scott Skinner-Thompson ed., New York: Wolters Kluwer 7th ed. 2022).
Book Chapters
Nicole Tuchinda, Reform special education law so that it can accomplish its purpose in Critical Special Education (Amy L. Ferrell & Eric B. Claravell eds., Routledge forthcoming).
Nicole Tuchinda, Navigating Trauma and Emotions While Teaching Torts, in How to Account for Trauma and Emotions in Law Teaching (Mallika Kaur & Lindsay M. Harris eds., Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. June 2024).
Yael Cannon & Nicole Tuchinda, Schools and Educational Programs, in AIDS and the Law 5.01-5.04 (Scott Skinner-Thompson ed., New York: Wolters Kluwer 7th ed. 2022 and 2023 edition, 2024 edition forthcoming).
Activities
Professor Tuchinda is a Committee Chair on the Board of Directors of ATN, the Attachment and Trauma Network, which has the mission of promoting the healing of children impacted by trauma through supporting families, schools, and communities.